Cloud Computing for Immersive Technology

Immersive technology is becoming an increasingly popular topic for use with cloud computing, and this chapter will provide an overview as simply as possible, although the area has many complexities. Immersive technologies include virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), mixed reality (MR), and extended reality (XR) [1]. To the general public, many of these technologies seem magical when entering into a digital world; each of these systems has massive computing needs, such as processing speed, mass data storage, render time, and network stability. Most small devices or headsets cannot perform all of these tasks independently. Therefore, cloud computing becomes the “behind the scenes” helper for these types of systems. This chapter examines how cloud-based platforms function as the “hidden brains” for immersive applications, providing the heavy lifting from remote locations and sending results to the user [2].